This invention relates to a facial tissue dispensing system, and more particularly, to a clip lift for such a system which lifts the tissues up towards the opening through which the tissues are dispensed as the tissues are being dispensed.
Facial tissues are well known in the art. The uses of facial tissues include, but are not limited to, blowing one's nose, cleaning one's glasses and cleaning. Generally, a facial tissue dispensing system includes a stack of facial tissues placed within a facial tissue carton. A stack of facial tissues ready to be put into a carton is known in the field as a clip. There are two basic types of facial tissue cartons: the pop-up variety and the reach-in variety.
A pop-up carton is generally a square or rectangular carton with a tissue dispensing opening on its top wall. The facial tissues are generally interfolded with each other in pop-up cartons, which is well known in the art. Interfolding means that each facial tissues is folded around part of the tissue immediately beneath the first tissue. There are various types of interfolding, such as Z-folding or V-folding the tissues. Because of the interfolding of the tissues, when a first tissue is pulled up through the tissue dispensing opening, a leading section of a second tissue, i.e., the tissue immediately beneath the first tissue, is also pulled part way through the opening.
In addition, a pop-up carton may include a piece of clear plastic film which covers the tissue dispensing opening. The film is slit such that tissues are dispensed from the carton through the slit. Because the slit is small, tissues are constricted from falling back through the slit once they have been pulled part way through the slit. If there is no such film covering the tissue dispensing opening, generally at one point of the opening, the opening is narrow enough to constrict the tissues.
Thus, as a result of interfolding the tissues and constricting the tissues by the slit, tissues are dispensed from a pop-up carton in the following manner. For the first tissue, the user must reach through the slit to grab the tissue to begin the tissue dispensing process. As the first tissue is being dispensed, because the tissues are interfolded, the leading section of the second tissue is pulled through the slit. Again, because of the slit, the leading section of the second tissue is constricted and will preferably not fall back through the slit into the carton. The leading section of the second tissue preferably remains outside of the carton, while the trailing section of the second tissue remains inside of the carton, interfolded with a third tissue. Then, when the second tissue is dispensed from, i.e., pulled out of, the carton, the leading section of a third tissue is pulled part way through the opening and is then constricted by the slit from falling back into the carton. Thus, the leading section of the third tissue remains outside of the carton for the next use. This process continues until all tissues have been dispensed from the carton.
A reach-in carton is also basically a square or rectangular carton which has a tissue dispensing opening on its top wall which extends down to include a large part of a side wall of the carton. For a reach-in carton, the tissues are generally not interfolded. To dispense tissues, the opening on the side wall of the carton is large enough such that a person simply reaches into the carton to pull out one or more tissues.
There are fall back problems associated with pop-up cartons. For instance, a tissue may not be interfolded with the tissue below it, i.e., there may be missed interfolds between two successive tissues. If this occurs, when the first tissue is dispensed, the second tissue will not rise up with the first tissue through the tissue dispensing slit in the film. Thus, there will be no tissue for a person to grab from above the carton. When this occurs, the person has to reach through the slit of the film covering the tissue dispensing opening and grab the second tissue and basically restart the pop-up tissue process. The film, however, may be distorted and stretched when a person reaches through it to grab a tissue from inside the carton. A distorted and stretched film may result in more fall backs of tissues.
Fall back of tissues may be more prevalent in a deeper carton where there is more distance between the tissue and the top wall dispensing opening or slit. The second tissue may separate from the first tissue as the space between the top of the tissue stack and the top wall dispensing slit progressively increases as the height of the tissue stack decreases. Thus, the second tissue may at first rise up with the first tissue but may then separate from the first tissue before it is pulled through the tissue dispensing slit. Again, then, a user would have to reach through the tissue dispensing slit, distorting and stretching the film covering the tissue dispensing opening, to restart the pop-up tissue process.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a tissue dispensing system that eliminates or decreases the fall back problems associated with pop-up cartons.